Buck Riveting, More Caulking, & Starting the Floor

Today I found the bees' nest from earlier this summer. It was nearly the size of my head.

​But before we get to that story, yesterday I learned to buck rivet from my friend Mike.  Over the course of the last 50 years (and especially since the PO put in a huge, residential-style door knob) the door has slammed into the side of the Airstream behind it. The result was an assortment of dents and a badly mangled rib on the inside. Since it involved a rib and the joint of two panels of exterior skin, I wanted to buck rivet it instead of using Olympic rivets. The main difference is that buck rivets are stronger and more solid. But they take two people and you can screw them up.  

We practiced on a few pieces of aluminum first. Mike, having the experience, ran the gun and I held the bucking bar inside. After the practice, we reinstalled the rib and sealed up the skin. There will always be a few ripples from the damage, but the dent is pushed out and the rib is secure.

I won't waste time or picture space discussing the caulking, but suffice to say that the caulking part is never finished. Ugh.

Lastly, today I started to tear up the floor. In airstreams, the floor-wall connection is what gives the trailer strength.  In mine, the connection is so rotted that I barely needed to removed the screws. The wood was just mush. The screws that I did remove looked like the one on the right. Not too much left there.

But it all isn't bad news. Actually quite the opposite. I started in the back of the trailer because that is typically where the worst frame rust-rot is found. I pulled up the first piece of floor and below it, besides the huge, dormant bees' nest was a steel frame with VERY little rust. It is way to early to tell, but it is a very good sign.